Having Stam as manager . . . . . . Not replacing the Heineken van with another West Berks Brewery one . . . . Ian Royal. There you go, i've done the joke answers for you. . .

Seriously - I think it was buying Aluko rather than getting a new left back in. Had we bough a left back then we'd have had a pretty fixed defence, Gunter wouldn't have been out of position at any point and Bacuna could have established himself as our DM. Also it seemed like the wingers we were playing at the time were doing a fairly decent job and all this did was send McCleary into a strop.

Seriously - I think it was buying Aluko rather than getting a new left back in. Had we bough a left back then we'd have had a pretty fixed defence, Gunter wouldn't have been out of position at any point and Bacuna could have established himself as our DM. Also it seemed like the wingers we were playing at the time were doing a fairly decent job and all this did was send McCleary into a strop.

Thing is, when you have Bacuna and Blackett in the squad, and both should be perfectly capable of playing the left-back role Stam wants, and Kermogant was injured, you can understand why he bought a forward instead.

Obita got injured after the window ended didn't he? In hindsight we've really struggled at LB but if Obita had been fit it wouldn't have been an issue

I think the biggest mistake in hindsight was trusting that Yann would come back and hit the ground running and play as he did last year. So as an extension of that, buying Aluko instead of a CF. And as an extension of that, seemingly having a shopping list of CFs who weren't going to be released by their club

There are/were certainly players we could have got hold of who would have made a massive difference, esp early season when we looked pretty good, but just lacking a CF

Not getting decent coaching staff in for me, Stephen Reid was key last season, and the fact our displays are going from okay at the start of the season to terrible now, suggests something is amiss on the training field.

retro royal Not getting decent coaching staff in for me, Stephen Reid was key last season, and the fact our displays are going from okay at the start of the season to terrible now, suggests something is amiss on the training field.

Hound Obita got injured after the window ended didn't he? In hindsight we've really struggled at LB but if Obita had been fit it wouldn't have been an issue

I think the biggest mistake in hindsight was trusting that Yann would come back and hit the ground running and play as he did last year. So as an extension of that, buying Aluko instead of a CF. And as an extension of that, seemingly having a shopping list of CFs who weren't going to be released by their club

There are/were certainly players we could have got hold of who would have made a massive difference, esp early season when we looked pretty good, but just lacking a CF

Well he hasn't played for us this season. Maybe it was thought that he would come back quicker and suffered a further injury after August.

Still - given that Obita isn't actually a left back himself I would have just bit the bullet and bought one in. He's a fine Championship player but if we ever got promoted we'd have to buy one anyway.

I think it mainly stems from a poor recruitment policy. We are buying players with bigger reputations, higher wages and "experience" from bigger leagues. We have gone against a policy that worked for many years of bringing in young players with potential from the lower leagues (and on far lower wages!).

This has benefited a number of teams with far smaller budgets than ours in this division. With the potential to sell on young players for now vastly obscene prices, and then re-investing the proceeds.

Yes, there is clearly problems with the brand of football and the manager. However, it always helps when you have better players and not necessarily ones with big undeserved reputations. Despite the problems with Stam, our squad is full of bang average players, which I remember pointing out in August.

Yep good shout, that was the time to do it. Possibly too late now, we just have to put up with it until summer.

I was thinking yesterday, if we do go down, I have the feeling that the Gourlay will still want to keep Stam, and see if he can turn it around in League One. Perish the thought, but I can really see that happening.

I think that was the worst Reading game i've ever been to in terms of what happened on the pitch and the atmosphere. Which is a shame because I thought that the club did a really good job of promoting the 500th game and getting such a big crowd.

As someone that believes with sticking with managers though I honestly don't think you could fire Stam at that point. A manager that got you to the play off final out of nowhere and then had to deal with losing key players. Given that we weren't threatened by relegation then it would have been extremely unfair.

Yep good shout, that was the time to do it. Possibly too late now, we just have to put up with it until summer.

I was thinking yesterday, if we do go down, I have the feeling that the Gourlay will still want to keep Stam, and see if he can turn it around in League One. Perish the thought, but I can really see that happening.

I would find it hard to believe the Stam or Gourlay have the bottle and stomach for League 1. We would have to literally press the reset button at the club and start from scratch with the youngsters and a manager who has experience of promotions in that league. Lets hope it doesn't come to that as we would be in financial ruin if we go down.

savage 4 england Despite the problems with Stam, our squad is full of bang average players.

Who came third last season........ Can't be that average.

19th, 17th, 3rd, 18th...that's where we have been.

We finished 3rd in a season of playing pretty crap football and ended up with a +4 GD. I think the mentality to achieve that last season was fantastic, but it didn't necessarily come from having a team of great players.